Dow Chemical to close Lower Gwynedd facility

After 50 years in Lower Gwynedd, the Dow Chemical Co. will be moving out of its current facility on Norristown Road in Spring House and into a new facility in Upper Providence. Photo by Eric Devlin/21st Century Media News Service.

LOWER GWYNEDD — After 50 years, Dow Chemical Co. is moving from its facility in Lower Gwynedd, taking with it hundreds of employees in the process.

With the future for the current facility — formerly known as Rohm and Haas research labs — located at 727 Norristown Road still unknown, many have begun to wonder how dramatic an impact the move will be on the community as a whole.

Justin Land, a spokesman for Dow, said after celebrating 50 years at the Lower Gwynedd location, a company review of the site showed significant investments would need to be made in order to meet Dow’s research and development needs for the next 50 years.

With that in mind, the company started looking at other available options and found an Upper Providence location, which was owned by Pfizer Inc., as a better alternative and signed a 50-year lease for the property in June 2012, according to information from Dow.

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The company will now begin sending its 800 employees to the new facility, according to Dow.

State Rep. Kate Harper, R-61, said she was “sorry to see go” from its location in Lower Gwynedd.

As a former township supervisor, Harper said she got to know the company well, calling them “great corporate citizens.”

“I’m happy they stayed in Montgomery County,” Harper said. “It’s great for the county to keep high-quality, highly educated people.”

Harper said the move leaves a hole in the community because the company helped support local schools through its property taxes and she hopes the facility will find a similar tenant to fill the spot.

Harper was in attendance for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Upper Providence location July 31, where Gov. Tom Corbett was also in attendance. Harper, a resident of Lower Gwynedd, said she was able to introduce the governor to Lower Gwynedd Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Kathleen Hunsicker, who was there alongside Township Manager Larry Comunale.

Harper said Hunsicker took her brief time with the governor to express her desire to form a government action team that could provide economic development grants to redevelop the site for a new business in order to create jobs.

The township needs to market the site to a business that will bring jobs to the area, Harper explained. Then, if there is a need for economic development money for improvements, “we would ask the governor for that.”

Comunale said the 133-acre site is a substantial piece of property and he is disappointed that Dow has decided to move.

The township, he said, was informed of the decision about a year ago. At the time the question was whether to move to a ready made facility in Upper Providence or rehabilitate an existing building that was hard to modernize. The decision in the end was an easy one to make and the research and development team decided to move.

Comunale said as of 2011, 678 employees were working at the facility, and that number has risen to about 800.

“Certainly it’s a loss,” he said. “Lower Gwynedd is fortunate to have a diverse profile of different uses an affluent resident base, housing stock and a small commercial area with very good grouping of Fortune 500 companies.”

He said with companies like Siemens, Merck and Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pharmaceutical company of Johnson & Johnson, the township is lucky to have a strong corporate presence.

As for the loss of jobs, Comunale said he’s sorry to see them go, but Janssen plans to add 1,200 new jobs, which “sort of cancels out” the loss.

The township, he said, earns most of its revenue from property taxes versus earned income tax, so while the move is unfortunate, it won’t be a “major hit” to tax totals.

“I’m more interested in seeing something viable go back in that will enhance the township to make it a good or better place to work.”

During the July 23 Lower Gwynedd Board of Supervisors meeting, the board advertised that it will be discussing in September the issue of rezoning the property to allow for multiple tenants to move in instead of one large tenant.

The moving process will take another year and a half, and Comunale said he expects the site to be empty for the next two years.

“It takes time in the literal sense,” he said. “Houses take a couple of years to sell sometimes. It’s a great site that’s flat and right off the interchange with good access to Philadelphia.”